FTAA Miami Moblization Update #4

Greetings from Citizens Trade Campaign! This is the fourth of our updates on the Mobilization against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), as activists around the country engage their local communities and prepare for the marches, rallies, teach-ins, and the People's Gala that will all be part of activities during the FTAA Ministerial in Miami November 17-22nd.

La Paz, Bolivia - Embattled President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigned Friday, a presidential aide said, hours after losing the support of his last key ally following weeks of deadly street protests over an unpopular plan to export natural gas.

Under Bolivia's constitution, Vice President Carlos Mesa would replace him, but is doubtful whether Mesa will be accepted by the masses in revolt. A former television reporter, Mesa is a political independent and a respected historian, but has no political base of his own.

" 'Wider-Fi' Widens"

Leslie Brooks Suzukamo, St. Paul Pioneer Press

It could have been a disaster when Otter Tail Corp. moved one of its corporate offices out of downtown Fargo, N.D., in 1999 and suddenly found itself beyond the range of high-speed, data-carrying telephone lines so vital to its business.

The local telephone company's offer of a slowpoke dial-up connection didn't meet Otter Tail's need for fast Internet traffic. So Joy Fetting, Otter Tail's information technology director, took a radical step.

She chose a wireless carrier, connecting the utility company's 20-person office to the Internet through a small rooftop dish antenna and bypassing the phone company's buried lines.

Four years later, Otter Tail's connection is still wireless and now faster than a T-1 landline — at less than half the cost.

Snehal Shingavi writes:

Dear friends:

The University of California has found three students -- Rachel Odes, Snehal
Shingavi, and Michael Smith -- guilty of participating in an illegal assembly
and refusing to cooperate with university officials for their involvement in
the anti-war sit-in that took place in Sproul Hall on March 20, 2003. Not
only does this mark an attack on anti-war protesters and people of
conscience throughout the country, the entire process from start to finish
has been riddled with unfairness and makes a mockery of anything resembling
justice.